The present invention relates to a transaction inquiring method and apparatus, and more particularly to a transaction inquiring method and apparatus which can retrieve information on a financial institution account using an IC card having a storage function through a retrieving method optionally selected irrespectively of on-line or off-line.
In conventional transaction inquiring method, a user stands before an ATM (automatic teller machine) to input a transaction inquiring requirement using a magnetic card, and inserts a pass-book to print out the transaction contents thereon by communicating with a transaction center. Further, the transaction processing apparatus as disclosed in JP-A-60-262276 displays only non-entry data on the display screen of ATM and also displays the transaction contents sent from the transaction center only in an on-line transaction, i.e. necessarily communicating with the transaction center. Thus, the conventional transaction inquiring methods cannot inquire for the transaction contents in an off-line transaction. Further, in a financial institution, a user cannot inquire for the transaction contents using only a magnetic card, i.e. without using a passbook on which entry of the transaction contents is to be made.
Accordingly, the conventional transaction inquiring apparatus have a problem that it does not take the inquiry during the off-line transaction into consideration and also can only make the display or entry of non-entry data but cannot retrieve necessary information from all the transaction data.